Terry recasts the vision for the reality that our Beliefs shape our values which in turn inform our behaviors. He gave us an overview of group life and then the staff led the time through the different components of group life: Meetings, Mission, Member Care, and Mentoring.
Terry talked about the meaning of being well-differentiated as a leader and took the leaders through some exercises to help people think about the importance of being well-differentiated. The well-differentiated leader is someone who cares and is connected but it not controlled by the drama and emotions of others.
Jim, Brenda, and Rodney talk with group leaders about mentoring threats and opportunities.
Terry talking about the importance of seeing people as whole persons. We are spiritual / physical hybrids. A group leader’s responsibility is in seeing people with the whole person in mind. The physical, spiritual, mental and relational are all facets of a persons life.
As a church we just finished going through the book of 2 Timothy. Terry took a few minutes to highlight a few key lesson from group life from our time in 2 Timothy.
First Saturday in February, 7:45 in the morning…I had left home about 5 to drive to Topeka. I wasn’t feeling exceptionally encouraged…I wasn’t feeling much of anything except tired. The person running the meeting looked at me and asked, “Chaplain, have anything for us?” I looked around the room of about 30 people…wearing masks…hard to discern what was on their minds. My mind quickly scrolled through some thoughts: -First of course… I’m tired and don’t really feel like saying…
Terry discusses the importance of viewing member care in group life as a spectrum. The spectrum goes from Necessary to Nice. Necessary are those physical, emotional, spiritual or relational needs in member’s lives where the need exceeds current capacity. Everyone is called to carry their own load so we can’t eliminate every burden, nor should we but at times people need help when the burden is to heavy to carry alone. At the nice end of the spectrum are those…
Rodney talks about Mission being the forgotten M of group life. Meetings are on the calendar and member care faces us at every meeting, but mission can be forgotten. Our role as leaders is to equip our people and to remind our members to engage in mission. Trace shared about how he is working in Christian Challenge to keep Mission on the forefront. Possible Mission Goals for Your Group Pray regularly for the lost in group Gospel conversation scoreboard Memorize…
Brenda encourages group leaders to remember the importance of member care in group but to not fall into the trap that member care is one size fits all. Individuals in your group feel love and cared for in different ways. Member care can look differently from group to group. Possible Member Care Goals for Group Get to know one another better – families, concerns, praises, etc. Serve one another in times of need. (Life events – babies, weddings, death, job…
